“So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in Egypt.”
Deuteronomy 10:19
At the moment there’s nothing new out there that seems very appropriate for a Christian audience, so it’s time to look at a classic. Serendipitously, a few weeks ago I just happened to watch Bad Day at Black Rock, an old film I’d heard about but had never managed to see. I’m glad I finally did, though; it’s the kind of picture about which people say, “It’s too bad they don’t make movies like that anymore.”
The year is 1945. As the movie opens, we see a train streaking across the western desert, then gradually slowing, then finally stopping in the tiny village of Black Rock, located perhaps in southwestern Arizona, in the literal middle of nowhere. The few townspeople become alert and pay close attention, for it’s the first time the train has stopped in Black Rock in four years. Off the train steps a one-armed man named Macreedy (Spencer Tracy). Macreedy is dressed impeccably in a dark suit and carries only a briefcase. Saying he’ll only be in Black Rock for 24 hours, he proceeds to the town hotel and asks to rent a room. His reception is hostility on virtually all fronts, for Black Rock has a secret it is hiding.
Asked why he has come to Black Rock, Macreedy says he needs to find a Japanese man named Komoko who supposedly lives nearby in a place called Adobe Flat. The boss of the town (Robert Ryan) tells him that Komoko was taken to an internment camp at the beginning of the war. When Macreedy expresses disbelief, he incurs the boss’s wrath and before long finds his own life in danger. Not wanting to spoil your viewing pleasure, I won’t say anything more about the resolution of the conflict but will leave it to you to buy the DVD, get it from the library, or order it on Netflix. It’s more than worth it.
Black Rock is riveting, drawing you into the action almost without your knowing it. Not a scene is wasted. Released in 1955, it has a McCarthy era subtext. The film is about acquiring courage, about loving your neighbor, about making brave moral decisions. Tracy and Ryan superbly play the roles of hero and villain, respectively, and Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin are effective as slimy thugs. Walter Brennan as the town undertaker and Dean Jagger as the weak, alcoholic sheriff also perform well. Anne Francis does a creditable job at playing the town’s only visible woman. The scenery is amazing.
Anyone who likes movies should know Bad Day at Black Rock.
My rating: 3 ½ stars
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